Article published In:
Journal of Narrative and Life HistoryVol. 5:4 (1995) ► pp.333–352
Narrative Discourse of African American Children
Abstract
Oral narratives are increasingly used in speech and language evaluations for measuring language skills, and to measure children's organizational skill within a broader communicative context. Because of this, oral-narrative analyses are applied to diverse age ranges and populations. However, there are few studies examining the production of narratives of child speakers of African American English (AAE), and these previous studies offer conflicting views on the nature of narratives in this population. Because of this, the purpose of this study was to investigate the production of narratives of AAE speaking children using elicitation procedures that were standard across participants. Fifteen partici-pants were selected from a predominantly African American low-income com-munity of Springfield, Massachusetts. Highpoint and story-grammar analyses-two analyses that are often applied narratives in previous studies- were applied to the samples gathered from these participants. The results indicated that (a) subjects produced a greater number of more advanced (com-plete and complex) structures than lower level structures within story grammar analysis at all age levels, and (b) the most advanced structure (classic structure) was observed more often than any other structures within highpoint analysis. (Speech/Hearing/Language Pathology)
References (19)
Brown, L., Sherbenou, R., & Johnson, S. (1990). Test of Nonverbal Intelligence (2nd ed.). Austin, TX: Pro-Ed.
Burgesmeister, B., & Blum, L. (1954). Columbia Mental Maturity Scale (CMMS) (3rd ed.). New York: Harcourt Brace.
Glenn, C. G., & Stein, N. (1980). Syntactic structures and real world themes in stories generated by children (Technical Report). Urbana: University of Illinois, Center for the Study of Reading.
Heath, S. B. (1983). Ways with words: Language, life and work in communities and classrooms. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. 
Hollingshead, A. B., & Redlich, F. C. (1958). Social class and mental illness: A community study. New York: Wiley.
Hudson, J., & Shapiro, L. (1991). From knowing to telling: The development of children's scripts, stories, and personal narratives. In A. McCabe & C. Peterson (Eds.), Developing narrative structure (pp. 89–136). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Kernan, K. T. (1977). Semantic and expressive elaboration in children's narratives. In S. Ervin-Tripp & C. Mitchell-Kernan (Eds.), Child discourse (pp. 91–102). New York: Academic.
Labov, W. (1972). Language in the inner city. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Lahey, M. (1988). Language disorders and language development. New York: Macmillan.
Liles, B. (1987). Episode organization and cohesive conjunctives in narratives of children with and without language disorders. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 301, 185–197.
Liles, B. Z. (1993). Narrative discourse in children with language disorders and children with normal language: A critical review of the literature. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 361, 868–882.
Michaels, S. (1981). "Sharing time": Children's narrative styles and differential access to literacy. Language in Society, 101, 423–442.
Michaels, S., & Cook-Gumperz, J. (1979). A study of sharing time with first-grade students: Discourse narratives in the classroom. In C. Chiarello (Ed.), Proceedings of the fifth annual meetings of the Berkeley Linguistics Society (pp. 647–660). Berkeley, CA: Berkeley Linguistic Society.
Michaels, S., & Foster, M. (1985). Peer to peer learning: Evidence from a student run sharing time. In A. Jaggar & M. T. Smith-Burke (Eds.), Observing the language learner, (pp. 143–158). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
Miller, J. (1981). Assessing language production in children. Austin, TX: Pro-Ed.
Peterson, C., & McCabe, A. (1983). Developmental psycholinguistics: Three ways of looking at a child's narrative. New York: Plenum.
Stein, N. L., & Glenn, C. (1979). An analysis of story comprehension in elementary school children. In R. Freedle (Ed.), New directions in discourse processing (pp. 53–120). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
Smitherman, G. (1977). Talkin' and testify in': The language of Black America. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Wyatt, T. (1991). Linguistic constraints on copula usage in Black English child speech. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Cited by (35)
Cited by 35 other publications
Mills, Monique T., Leslie C. Moore, Rong Chang, Somin Kim & Bethany Frick
2021. Perceptions of Black Children's Narrative Language: A Mixed-Methods Study. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools 52:1 ► pp. 84 ff. 
Spencer, Trina D. & Douglas B. Petersen
2020. Narrative Intervention: Principles to Practice. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools 51:4 ► pp. 1081 ff.
Zhang, Fangfang, Allyssa McCabe, Jiaqi Ye, Yan Wang & Xiaoyan Li
2019. A Developmental Study of the Narrative Components and Patterns of Chinese Children Aged 3–6 Years. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research 48:2 ► pp. 477 ff.
Kim, Jung-Mee
2018. Expressive Elaboration in Personal Narratives and Fictional Narratives in Typically Developing Children. Communication Sciences & Disorders 23:1 ► pp. 60 ff.
Gardner-Neblett, Nicole, Stephanie M. Curenton & Kimberly A. Blitch
2017. Viewing African American Children’s Oral Language Skills as a Strength. In African American Children in Early Childhood Education [Advances in Race and Ethnicity in Education, 5], ► pp. 123 ff.
Hyter, Yvette D., Kenyatta O. Rivers & Glenda DeJarnette
2015. Pragmatic Language of African American Children and Adolescents. Topics in Language Disorders 35:1 ► pp. 8 ff.
Koonce, Nicole M.
2015. When It Comes to Explaining. Topics in Language Disorders 35:1 ► pp. 76 ff.
Mills, Monique T.
2015. Narrative Performance of Gifted African American School-Aged Children From Low-Income Backgrounds. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology 24:1 ► pp. 36 ff.
Haden, Catherine A. & Philip C. Hoffman
2013. Cracking the Code: Using Personal Narratives in Research. Journal of Cognition and Development 14:3 ► pp. 361 ff.
Mills, Monique T., Ruth V. Watkins & Julie A. Washington
2013. Structural and Dialectal Characteristics of the Fictional and Personal Narratives of School-Age African American Children. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools 44:2 ► pp. 211 ff.
Terry, Nicole Patton, Monique T. Mills, Gary E. Bingham, Souraya Mansour & Nancy Marencin
2013. Oral Narrative Performance of African American Prekindergartners Who Speak Nonmainstream American English. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools 44:3 ► pp. 291 ff.
Battle, Dolores E.
2012. The cultures of african american and other blacks around the world. In Communication Disorders in Multicultural and International Populations, ► pp. 20 ff.
Burns, Frances A., Peter A. de Villiers, Barbara Z. Pearson & Tempii B. Champion
2012. Dialect-Neutral Indices of Narrative Cohesion and Evaluation. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools 43:2 ► pp. 132 ff.
Gardner‐Neblett, Nicole, Elizabeth P. Pungello & Iheoma U. Iruka
2012. Oral Narrative Skills: Implications for the Reading Development of African American Children. Child Development Perspectives 6:3 ► pp. 218 ff.
Gorman, Brenda K., Christine E. Fiestas, Elizabeth D. Peña & Maya Reynolds Clark
2011. Creative and Stylistic Devices Employed by Children During a Storybook Narrative Task: A Cross-Cultural Study. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools 42:2 ► pp. 167 ff.
Reese, Elaine, Catherine A. Haden, Lynne Baker-Ward, Patricia Bauer, Robyn Fivush & Peter A. Ornstein
2011. Coherence of Personal Narratives Across the Lifespan: A Multidimensional Model and Coding Method. Journal of Cognition and Development 12:4 ► pp. 424 ff.
Hester, Eva Jackson
2010. Narrative Correlates of Reading Comprehension in African American Children. Contemporary Issues in Communication Science and Disorders 37:Spring ► pp. 73 ff.
Horton-Ikard, RaMonda
2009. Cohesive Adequacy in the Narrative Samples of School-Age Children Who Use African American English. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools 40:4 ► pp. 393 ff.
Reese, Elaine
2009. The development of autobiographical memory: Origins and consequences. In Advances in Child Development and Behavior Volume 37 [Advances in Child Development and Behavior, 37], ► pp. 145 ff.
Cuneo, C. Nicholas, Allyssa Mccabe & Gigliana Melzi
2008. Mestizaje: Afro-Caribbean and Indigenous Costa Rican Children's Narratives and Links with Other Traditions. In Spanish-Language Narration and Literacy, ► pp. 237 ff.
Lee, Carol D.
2006. ‘Every good‐bye ain’t gone’: analyzing the cultural underpinnings of classroom talk. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 19:3 ► pp. 305 ff.
Lee, Carol D.
2017. Integrating Research on How People Learn and Learning Across Settings as a Window of Opportunity to Address Inequality in Educational Processes and Outcomes. Review of Research in Education 41:1 ► pp. 88 ff.
Lee, Carol D.
2017. Commentary. American Educational Research Journal 54:1_suppl ► pp. 395S ff.
Price, Johanna R., Joanne E. Roberts & Sandra C. Jackson
2006. Structural Development of the Fictional Narratives of African American Preschoolers. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools 37:3 ► pp. 178 ff.
McCabe, Allyssa & Lynn S. Bliss
2005. Narratives from Spanish-Speaking Children with Impaired and Typical Language Development. Imagination, Cognition and Personality 24:4 ► pp. 331 ff.
CHANG, CHIEN-JU
2004. Telling stories of experiences: Narrative development of young Chinese children. Applied Psycholinguistics 25:01
ROSS, SARAH H., JANNA B. OETTING & BETH STAPLETON
2004. PRETERITEHAD+ V-ED: A DEVELOPMENTAL NARRATIVE STRUCTURE OF AFRICAN AMERICAN ENGLISH. American Speech 79:2 ► pp. 167 ff.
Champion, Tempii, Allyssa McCabe & Yvanne Colinet
2003. The Whole World Could Hear: The Structure of Haitian-American Children's Narratives. Imagination, Cognition and Personality 22:4 ► pp. 381 ff.
Mainess, Karen J, Tempii B Champion & Allyssa McCabe
2002. Telling the Unknown Story Complex and Explicit Narration by African American Preadolescents—Preliminary Examination of Gender and Socioeconomic Issues. Linguistics and Education 13:2 ► pp. 151 ff.
Robinson, JoAnn, Christine Hérot, Phillip Haynes & Linda Mantz-Simmons
2000. Children’s story stem responses: a measure of program impact on developmental risks associated with dysfunctional parenting. Child Abuse & Neglect 24:1 ► pp. 99 ff.
Ulatowska, Hanna K., Gloria Streit Olness, CaSaundra L. Hill, Julie A. Roberts & Molly W. Keebler
2000. Repetition in Narratives of African Americans: The Effects of Aphasia. Discourse Processes 30:3 ► pp. 265 ff.
Champion, Tempii B.
1997. “Tell me somethin' good”: A description of narrative structures among African American children. Linguistics and Education 9:3 ► pp. 251 ff.
Edwards, Viv
1997. Writing in Multilingual Classrooms. In Encyclopedia of Language and Education, ► pp. 107 ff.
Edwards, Viv
1997. Teacher-Pupil Talk in Multi-Ethnic Classrooms. In Oral Discourse and Education, ► pp. 95 ff.
[no author supplied]
2008. DEVELOPING INDEPENDENT NARRATION. In Spanish-Language Narration and Literacy, ► pp. 143 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 20 october 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.